It’s uncertain what the future of nearly 200 000 Grade 8 Kenyan pupils will be this year. In mid-January 2014, Jacob Kaimenyi, Kenya’s education cabinet secretary, announced that only 77% of children who wrote the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education last year would be ensured of a place in a school.

Kenyan education officials said it was crucial that those who do not make the secondary school cut attended a polytechnic to drive the political scheme known as Kenya’s Vision 2030. Government has undertaken a national campaign to get the public to stop calling technical institutions “village” polytechnics – a name that carries negative stereotypes. It has also assured the Kenyan people that the selections for Grade 8 were equitable in every way.